FEATURE
For Eav Bikes, it’s doing all it can to get out in front of fleet managers and putting in the legwork to familiarise workers with a new, surprisingly more efficient, way of doing business. Temple says “Convincing the stereotypical site manager or lifelong van driver that this is the future has its challenges, but with quantifiable financial benefits, real demand coming from outside of the logistics world and companies now coming to us, rather than having to drive inquiries, times are changing. We can now lease our vehicles with Northgate so that’s helping some businesses dip a toe in without stumping up the current £13,495 retail cost.” While that overhead sounds like a lot and indeed does make
for interesting conversations with the as-yet unfamiliar, when you break down the cost savings very quickly you realise that the cargo bike is an asset for a business, rather than a quick- to-depreciate liability. “Transport for London data suggests that the average time
to park in the city is between six and nine minutes and I can tell you from experience that parking somewhere like Covent Garden may well cost you £20,” says Chris, implying that the profit margins of doing logistics with a van in the city quickly evaporate. “We have a customer who was paying somebody to sit in their van and be ready to move it if a traffic warden came along, such was their bill for tickets. You can park our bikes
14 | March 2025
anywhere and needless to say, take more direct routes saving yet more time,” Chris concludes. He is, we calculate, being modest with the savings potential of his bikes, but at this early stage of the segment’s growth, the firm is data collecting, refining and improving all the time. It knows very well that to charge its standard battery a company will, at today’s electricity prices, pay only pennies north of a pound, rather than the spiralling rates EV vans are facing, not to mention internal combustion engine fuel pricing. Arguably you could even factor in staff wellbeing as a perk of the switch on account of it being widely accepted that cyclists take fewer sick days.
Then there are the savings on insurance, potential vehicle
excise duties, plus all the other costs associated with motoring. As low emissions zones roll out in each of the UK’s major cities it seems inevitable that companies will gravitate toward the vehicles that Eav produces, which of course means Chris’s priority now is being seen by the right eyes. With production ramping up and the reasons to green up fleets only mounting, you can expect to see far more Eav cargo bikes in the near future. Needless to say, the economic argument for e-cargo is becoming inevitable.
www.eavcargo.com
www.bikebiz.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
